US to Provide Syrian Terrorists with Airstrikes Call-in Capability

The US decided to provide pickup trucks equipped with mounted machine guns and radios for calling in US airstrikes to terrorist groups, seeking to replicate the success Kurdish forces, aided by American B-1B bombers.

The Syrian militants were to receive Toyota Hi-Lux pickups with machine guns with GPS devices to help the US-led bombing mission coordinate strikes against the rival extremist terrorists.

However, the final decision to provide air support to the terrorist group shad not been made yet.
The plan came as the US prepared to start training the Syrian armed groups.

Military officials said American trainers would be in place March 1 in Jordan, with a second site due to open soon after in Turkey.

Furthermore, the Pentagon, which declared it planned to train 5,000 Syrian terrorists a year for three years, foresaw the first batch of US-trained militants returning to Syria around the end of 2015.

According to information from several sources, the publication stated the plan was part of a “train-and-equip” program that was due to begin next month and would mark the first time Washington had openly armed the insurgents.

The Pentagon hoped to outmaneuver ISIL in the region by providing the militants with “superior” training and air support capabilities.

Drawing on the experience of the Kobani campaign, where militants called inAmerican B-1B bombers for help, officials hoped the strategy would succeed. “The way we envision it, it would be very similar to Kobani,” said a senior military official.
The US planes would drop 500- and 2,000-pound guided bombs on moving targets, such as tanks, using the B-1’s sniper pod.

As part of the training mission, teams of four to six militants would each be given a Toyota pickup and trackers enabling them to call in airstrikes in addition to mortars, or even more complex antitank weapons.

Hence, military officials declared that their ability to control the militants would be limited once they were on the battlefield, but Washington planned to use some leverage, such as ammunition resupply and paychecks to keep control on those it helped train.

Nonetheless, Damascus warned earlier that Washington should respect the sovereignty of Syria in its attempts to deal with the ISIL.